Modern businesses utilize management and information technology to design, enact, control, and analyze operational business processes involving humans, organizations, applications, documents and other assets. Software may be provided to help with implementing and executing business processes.
Business processes may be implemented on an application platform as business scenarios. The application platform may include a plurality of deployment units and data. Each deployment unit, which are sets of application services, may provide functionality to users, for example, sales, finances, human resources, etc. Deployment units may interface with data to provide assigned functionalities.
The deployment units and data of the application platform may combine to provide one or more business scenarios to users. For example, business scenarios may include human resources administration, customer ordering and subsequent invoicing and other business functions.
The application platform may be upgraded to a new release application platform. The new release application platform may offer additional functionalities, as well as new deployment units. Each new deployment unit may offer additional functionalities in support of business scenarios offered by the application platform.
Each deployment unit may include customer-programmed add-ons to provide special functionality required by the customer. However, such add-ons are created and supported by the customer, and therefore not provided by a new deployment unit. Such add-ons may require migration to the new deployment unit before functioning correctly on the new application platform.
Previously, upgrading an application platform involved installing and executing a new application platform with associated deployment units and data. Thus, customer-programmed add-ons may cease executing correctly. Thus, customers may hesitate at upgrading to a new application platform, even when all deployment units are not associated with a customer-programmed add-on, and new functionality is provided by the new application platform are desirable.
Thus, a need exists to provide an incremental upgrade approach for an application platform and its associated deployment units.